Around 19 000 inspirational young people gathered at WE Day UN on 25 September to celebrate the incredible work they are doing to make positive change in their communities and around the world. All the young people who attended the event had earned a free ticket by taking action on one local and one global cause of their choice. Taking place in New York, United States of America, during the seventy-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly, this year’s WE Day UN was held in partnership with UNAIDS, the UN Global Compact and UN Women.

UNAIDS has enjoyed a long-standing partnership with WE Day, helping to educate young people about HIV and to support them in their socially conscious efforts to make a sustainable impact in their societies and around the world. Through the important work of WE Day, UNAIDS is able to reach more than 20 000 schools across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Speaking to the young audience in the Barclays Center Stadium in New York, Gunilla Carlsson, UNAIDS Executive Director, a.i., said, “AIDS is not over, but it can be! You can be the generation that ends AIDS and leads the world in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, creating a better world for generations to come.”

Ms Carlsson used the opportunity to remind young people of the importance of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and how critical it is to talk about HIV to break down the stigma around the epidemic. Her remarks were preceded by a newly released animation from UNAIDS that demonstrates the interlinkages and interdependence of HIV and the Sustainable Development Goals and how efforts to end AIDS can lead to a wider, people-centred social transformation.